Dear Friends

August is almost over and as we approach Autumn I though I would just offer you a few dates for your diary. 

Hayley has composed a useful diary of dates for the rest of this year and 2020. Click here for a copy or pick up at the back of church.

The Bishop of Kensington will be with us on Sunday 1 December at 6pm in the evening for a service of confirmation. We will hold a service of admission to Holy Communion in the morning at 10.30am. So preparation for these two events will begin on Sunday 29 September after mass. If you would like to be confirmed please see one of the clergy, you need to be over the age of 11 years, there is no upper limit for confirmation, everybody is welcome. If you would like your child to receive communion and be prepared for this event again please see one of the clergy. We can admit children to communion if they are 7 years or older.

This Advent we will be preparing for our Christmas celebration by looking at Landscape. The landscape of our own faith and outwardly the context of the place, in which we ‘live, move and have our being’  (Acts 17:28) More details in September.

I hope in Lent we will begin to do a bit of theology around some of our favourite hymns. What they mean and what they are saying to us. But more about this course later.

As many of you know Northumberland is my favourite county, it’s where my faith grew and was nurtured at the Franciscan Friary at Alnmouth. As 2020 is designated the ‘Year of Pilgrimage’ I have decided to lead a walking pilgrimage along the Northumbrian cost from Alnmouth to Berwick-Upon-Tweed. Along the way we will discover more about the Northern Saints – Paulinus, Aidan, and Cuthbert. The kings of the area Edwin and Oswald, and we will walk in their footsteps. We will arrive by train at Alnmouth on Monday 25 May, walk to Berwick-Upon -Tweed and depart on Saturday morning 30 May. On the way we will visit Dunstanburgh Castle, Seahouses and Bamburgh, walk the pilgrim route across the sands to Holy Island and visit Cuthbert’s cave, before we arrive at Berwick on Friday evening. Details are yet to be finalised, if you are interested please see me. 

Enjoy what remains of the summer!

Simon